Bandhs have increasingly lost their support, everywhere. The other day people of Assam, especially capital Guwahati, paid no heed to a bandh called by Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), a party that ruled the state for two terms. Elsewhere, there are incidents of burning tyres, stone-pelting, road blockade, damaging shops, and assault on bandh ‘violators’. All these indicate an increasing public resistance against bandhs.

Violent acts would not have taken place had there been ‘total support’ of bandh, as is the case in Meghalaya, so far. Bandhs are always ‘peaceful’ here, because there is least public resistance against such calls. Police and administration cannot take credit for such peace. The credit goes to people who ‘support’ the bandh, for whatever reasons. As long as the bandh is against the government, which is normally the case, there is no chance of any conflict. None has called any bandh against violence perpetrated by militant outfits in the state.

While, of late, the state government has been able to convince its employees to turn up at least in some major departments, most Central government offices gloriously remain under lock and key during bandhs called by any group. An office picketing by a regional party of Meghalaya recently fell flat as very few responded to the call, compelling the party to ‘withdraw’ it a couple of days later.

Amid the struggle by state government to fight bandhs in the state, the Meghalaya High Court passed its landmark order on May 28. The order is significant in many aspects as it sought to take action against many establishments and services.

The order passed by a full bench comprising Chief Justice Uma Nath Singh, Justice SR Sen and Justice TNK Singh directed the government to serve show cause notices to medical stores, hotels and taxis for not operating during the bandh hours.

The court also asked the media, both print and electronic, not to publish any report calling for bandh by any organization. “…we direct that the statements of HNLC or any organization which may disturb the even tempo of day-to-day public life and cause violation of Fundamental rights of citizens in particular under Article 19 and 21 of the 12 Constitution of India relating to strike, bandh, hartal, road blockade and holding of rallies with unlawful design shall not be issued by any of the print and electronic media,” the court order said.

While passing the directive, the court referred to nine orders passed by the high courts of Kerala (4), Calcutta (2), Bombay (2) and Gauhati (1), in this regard. The first order cited by the high court was that of Kerala High Court in 1998. But, there is no mention of any such ban on media in any of the texts of orders of various high courts, as quoted in the Meghalaya High Court order.

There are a few concerns regarding effectiveness of the High Court order in curbing adverse impact of bandhs on normal public life. While the mainstream media – print and electronic – are still dominant means of disseminating information to public especially in backward regions like the Northeast, the prevalence of social media cannot be overlooked.

In fact, there is a new trend of mainstream media sourcing information from social media! Every other day, there are reports in mainstream media about controversies surrounding social media.

Militant organisations, for obvious reasons, are very active in social media. The police have never been able to crackdown on them on the basis of their activities on social media. So, if not mainstream media, the call for bandh will spread through social media, SMS, phone call etc. And, we know that negative news like bandh – of course most government employees do not think it’s negative – always spreads like wildfire. Will government be able to stop it?

Significantly, the High Court order restricting media from publishing bandh call reports is based on a ‘request’ made by the state DGP. His request comes in the wake of a recent boycott of chief minister Mukul Sangma by the local media after he had stated in the floor of the Assembly that media are ‘publicity houses of terrorist organizations’.

The chief minister made the accusation while expressing his concern over ‘undue’ publicity given to militant organizations and their statements especially calling bandh and accusing the government machinery or any elected representative. The High Court order will ‘address’ this concern of the government too.

The order asks for ‘criminal proceedings’ against the media if found publishing such reports of calls for bandh, hartal, strike, blockade and rally. The order would be a tough challenge to comply with by the media in a north-eastern state like Meghalaya where such happenings are the order of the day.

Ri-Bhoi in Meghalaya is one of the most fertile hilly regions of the North-east. From strawberry to jackfruit, everything grows here. Water is abundant. Weather is moderate. Vegetations here are saved from the severe heat in the plains of Assam during summer as well as the sub-zero level chilly winter in the upper reach of Shillong Plateau. Yet, Ri-Bhoi district is rated as India’s one of the most backward regions. The region’s potentials vis-à-vis the reality has attracted a lot of investment including foreign funds via NGOs working in livelihood programmes. Being the gateway of the state to the rest of the country, the district is accessible to markets, without which economic activities do not hold any meaning.

The state government has put a lot of attention in exploiting the region’s potentials. This is the only comparatively peaceful region in the state with so much of potentials in agriculture, horticulture and other allied sectors. Opening of a ‘first-of-its-kind’ Fish Brood Bank at Umktieh in the district is one of the government initiatives to harness economic activities in the area. It is expected to stabilise the supply of fingerlings to the state sourcing the best quality seeds from all over the country. This facility has added to several new sustainable economic activities in the district including cultivation of organic tea and rubber. The region is also one of the largest producers of pineapples. Most of the pineapples found in the markets of Guwahati are sourced from Ri-Bhoi. Besides, betel nuts grow abundantly in the district. There have also been government initiatives to promote the traditional silk, Ryndia, which is again unique to Ri-Bhoi.

Chief minister Mukul Sangma, who opened the Fish Brood Bank, significantly said there is a need to change the perception that living in rural areas is not attractive and that it can happen only with the right kind of investment. He perhaps hinted to the fact that most people still think that employment means a permanent job in the government. Although a huge section of Indians have opened themselves to private sectors and discarded government jobs, the trend far from catching up in the backward North-east, which is plagued by militancy and conflicts over identity, race and religion. Initiatives like the Fish Brood Bank can come a long way in resolving these issues in the long run. For this to happen, these initiatives must give economic benefits to the grassroots people.

He is fair. He’s handsome. He’s not like those Bangladeshis, Indian people are familiar with. The Bangladesh National Party (BNP) leader Salahuddin Ahmed, arrested recently in Shillong for trespassing into India, has received treatment unlike his fellow citizens those sneak into their Big Brother’s land for livelihood. Hours after being put into a government-run mental asylum, Ahmed was put into the Shillong Civil Hospital and they shifted to the super-specialty North East Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Science (NEIGRIHMS) in a couple of days. His wife Hasina, who flew in to Shillong, said she is going to urge the Indian government to grant permission to take him to Singapore for ‘treatment’. According to doctors, he is suffering from kidney stones and cardiac problems. He might not be fortunate to be flown to Singapore, but he is sure to get the best possible treatment in India. Yet, he is an illegal migrant, possibly sneaked into India through the same holes in the barbed wire fencing, been used by his fellow citizens for decades!

Most Bangladeshi origin people, especially the Bengali Muslim migrants are looked down upon in India. For that matter, every poor migrant is meted with such treatment in any foreign country. There is a comparatively better situation in Europe for African migrants due to increased world attention, but elsewhere they are victims of racial abuse. Their woes multiply especially when they cannot match the physical features of the native population. More than being migrants, they are victimised, exploited and deprived of minimum human rights because of their physical appearance. In the tribal-dominated states of North-east, a Bangladeshi migrant and a poor Indian labourer face the same racial bias. Let alone Bangladeshis, ‘Indians’ are a big No No in some regions.

It is the race that plays the dirty role more than the nationality. Hate between Indians and Pakistanis is palpable. But, a common Indian Muslim does not hate the Pakistanis (he might even love them just for having the same religion) as much as an Indian Hindu does! Same way, a Pakistani (Muslim, obviously) does not look at an Indian Muslim the way he gets irked by the face of an Indian Hindu. On the other hand, all these racial differences are buried when someone is high and mighty. Just like the case of Salahuddin Ahmed, the former minister in the then Khaleda Jia-led BNP government. Money and power play the trick here. Race and money (that leads to power) have always divided the people. They were treated differently, they are and they will be. Hope time proves this editorial wrong.

A bullet train in India, a metro in Guwahati, a Times Square in Shillong and cherry blossom trees dotting all Shillong thoroughfares – they all might happen one day. Despite skepticism, there is nothing wrong in having such dreams. There were skeptics about the Wright Brothers’ invention too. Now, we can’t dream of a life without flying, although we are no avian! The dream of Wright Brothers has become a necessity. There may be a day when Indians will not be able to think of travelling without the bullet train. One day, people in Guwahati might not wonder why Mumbaikars rush into the metros in thousands, if not lakhs, every day. The proposed ‘Times Square’, for which Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma drew severe criticism for ‘daydreaming’, might take away the commercial hub tag from Khyndailad. The slum-like Polo area might turn into a WiFi zone. So, there should be no skepticism about the latest dream – making Shillong eligible to host the world’s second Cherry Blossom festival, only after Japan, in the coming years.

Funded by the Imphal-based Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development (IBSD), the cherry blossom project was kicked off by chief minister Mukul Sangma recently. In the first phase of the mission, 5,000 pink and white cherry trees will be planted in and around the city. The first sets of trees were planted at the picturesque Wards Lake and at the State Convention Centre beginning the ‘pink’ initiative. Being fast growing varieties, these trees and they are expected to blossom between three to five years. IBSD has emulated the project idea from ‘cherry avenues’ created by countries like USA, Holland, Australia to attract tourists. With its unique landscape, moist weather and deep-rooted music and food culture, Meghalaya can push its ranks in the world tourism map. In the second phase, IBSD will plant another 5,000 cherry trees along the 18-km long road from Umiam to Shillong, the main route for rest of the world to drive up to the Scotland of East.

However, there is still some room for skepticism. Many a ‘green’ projects have failed in Meghalaya. A mega plantation drive for Cherrapunjee, which is infamous as the ‘wet desert’, has fallen through leaving the government red faced. There has been no progress in the ground in realising the Times Square dream as well. Although the pink city drive appears to be more realistic, red tape and lure of money can derail anything. Hope the cherry blossoms, finally.

Bandh and picketing, the so-called democratic means of protest, may be a thing of past, in the near future. The north-eastern states are having less of them now compared to two decades ago. Curfew was almost a normal phenomenon in Assam during the violence-marred anti-influx agitation in the 80’s. Same time, Meghalaya was burning too. While bandhs were called by agitating groups, the government called curfew to restore normalcy. In both situations, common people were the sufferers. Those days are missing, thankfully. However, there are still some pockets in this region where bandhs are a regular affair. Gone are the days of mass killings and village burnings in Assam’s only two hill districts – Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao (formerly North Cachar Hills). But people from outside (even within the state) try to doubly confirm if there was any strike in the region before heading towards them. Garo Hills in Meghalaya is another bandh-hit region. A Garo militant outfit is yet to withdraw its over-two-month-long bandh from one district headquarters, Ampati. If an outsider ventures into such regions without getting the ‘news’, he is most likely to get trapped mid way! However, the overall situation is much better compared to the past.

The other day, Guwahati defied an Assam bandh called by two-time ruling Asom Gana Parishad in protest against the land swap agreement against Bangladesh. It is not that AGP is a spent force now and the people dared to defy their diktat, but it is the need of the city to work every day, every night. Being the hub of seven north-eastern states, Guwahati cannot afford any bandh. Crores will go down the drain if such a city stops moving for an entire day. Even the people of Ampati could not take it any longer. They started coming out, attending their offices and businesses.

Another incident of people’s defiance to such calls is the ongoing office picketing by Hills State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP) demanding immediate passage to a Village Administration Bill, which the government sees as “anti-national”. Almost all the state government offices did not pay any heed to the HSPDP’s call for office picketing while the banks and, interestingly, many Central government offices chose not to take the ‘risk’. Bandh is a great loss to the economy, affecting all the citizens including the protesters. Although there are arguments in favour of this so-called democratic means of protest, it has become a tool of showing one-upmanship and needs to be done away with.

The current phase of Shillong’s perennial ‘troubled days’, kicked off allegedly KSU activists last night, had its genesis almost a year ago. The violence-ridden four-month-long agitation by nationalistic groups demanding Inner Line Permit (ILP) subsided by the end of 2013. But the National Green Tribunal (NGT) order on April 17 last year banning coal mining in Meghalaya caused the anti-establishment sentiment to grow again. The order was viewed as an onslaught on the rights of tribals, which always had been the root cause of all unrests in Meghalaya, particularly in Shillong. Many lives, most of them non-tribals who are viewed as ‘outsiders’, were lost and their property attacked during such agitations in the past nearly four decades. The NGT order triggered several mass protests including one where two protesters were killed in alleged police firing in Jaintia Hills last year.

After the NGT order, there comes another ruling from the Meghalaya High Court passed by Justice SR Sen debarring traditional chiefs from issuing certificates of birth, residence and no objection certificates. The judge based his verdict on the fact that there is no existing law that empowers the chiefs to issue such certificates. However, this has been the practice for decades and government offices, banks, educational institutions used to recognize such certificates. This order too was viewed by local groups as an attempt to curtail the special rights of ‘backward’ tribals granted in the Constitution as per the Sixth Schedule. The huge public sentiment against the HC order was palpable in a recent public rally attended by thousands in Shillong. It may not be a coincidence that activists of the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU), which always had been at the forefront of violent agitations in the history of Meghalaya, allegedly resorted to the old method just a day after the headmen’s rally. The rally led by HSPDP MLA and a former ‘student’ activist Ardent Basaiawmoit warned government of office picketing, which the state has not witnessed since the 2013 ILP agitation.

With all the multiple issues of NGT order, HC order and perennial ‘concern’ over influx of ‘outsiders’, this time it is an acid test for the Mukul Sangma-led Meghalaya United Alliance government. Sangma, already facing a battle from within his Congress party, will have to be utmost cautious in tackling the current phase of unrest. It will be viewed as his failure if the current agitation blows up and reminds gory days of Shillong.

‘Loan sharks’ are a necessary evil for poor Indians. They exploit people, but not before they help the latter in need. These money lenders – most of them unregistered – help people in times of instant financial emergency. You get the money within no time. No papers needed! Why on earth they would not charge astronomical rates of interest? They will. It is their business and a businessman always tries to make most of his capital, in this case raw cash. For him it does not matter if the debtor is in dire straits and getting poorer under the burden of interest being paid to the former.

The issue of loan shark hit headlines in Meghalaya recently following the suicide of a woman. The woman, a single mother of four children, allegedly committed suicide after coming under constant pressure from her creditor to repay the money. According to friends and relatives of the woman, who used to sell vegetables, she had been paying around 20% per month interest for a loan of around Rs 50,000. Her story had led several such other ‘victims’ to come out in the open and lodge FIRs against two other loan sharks. They alleged that they were constantly harassed by the creditors, in some cases even after paying double the principal amount! It is very usual for these money lenders to charge between 10% to 30%, and even 50% for short-term loans, due to poor reach of banking institutions. Narendra Modi’s much-publicised Jan Dhan Yojana has not helped improve the situation either.

What the poor and illiterate people need from banks is credit and not an account to deposit money. Millions of Indians live hand to mouth and you cannot ask them to skip a meal to deposit money in the bank! For the bank, even after 100% success of the Jan Dhan Yojana, the rules for providing loans are the same. The bank, in most cases, asks for a guarantee to give credit. Then there is the trouble of paper work. In such scenario, loan sharks become messiah for the poor and illiterate people, who end up getting one ‘loan’ to repay another, sometimes taken from the same lender! The vicious cycle goes on! There is hardly any quick fix answer, unless the income level of these people goes up and they become educated enough to avail bank loans with less hurdles.

Roads and bridges are meant for public use. They serve the public for
years, decades and even centuries. Do you wonder they also specially
serve a particular section? Such structures help build their image.
No, it should not be mistaken as image built by a landmark piece of
engineering for a particular place or nation or community. This is
about personal image, of politicians and also of their respective
parties. They declare open such structures, robbing all the credit off
the makers (or the construction firm) and the public money spent on
the work. It is only their names inscribed in golden letters that you
see in landmark buildings and roads. No credit is given to the real
makers of these roads, bridges and buildings.
To get the name and fame, a politician does not necessarily contribute
anything towards the work. Union minister Nitin Gadkari has come to
the North-east to inaugurate and lay foundation stones of a slew of
roads and bridges. One such road has been in use by public for nearly
two years! Gadkari is going to ‘inaugurate’ the Shillong Bypass, a
landmark road built so far in the North-east. Unfortunately, no big
leaders of the previous UPA government, under whose tenure the road
was completed in record time, could spare the time to inaugurate it.
Gadkari grabbed the chance! It is for anybody’s guess that by
‘opening’ the two-year-old road, Gadkari is not going to make it any
better. With Assam election round the corner, the union minister is on
a massive image-building operation in the North-east. And for this to
be done, he is going overboard – right from opening the two-year-old
road to laying foundation stone of a four-lane road in upper Assam
that has been hanging fire for nearly a decade!
Politicians are actually double beneficiaries of public utilities. At
first they get their “incentives” from the contractors for awarding
the work. They get their personal share of the public money for doing
something for the public. They should actually be thankful that public
has not raised any objection to their personal income from the public
projects. But, they don’t stop there. They come again to take credit
for the things built with joint effort by construction firm and
government officials. Even if they are ‘deprived’ of the early
benefits in making of the structure, they ensure that it at least
helps build their image. It does not matter if the work was initiated
by any rival party. That’s why Gadkari has stooped such low to declare
open the Shillong Bypass, the bus missed by either Sonia Gandhi or her
son Rahul Gandhi!

Hundreds, if not thousands, of tribes and communities, and hundreds of
religions and sects in India are battling for identity every day.
While some are worried about influx of ‘outsiders’ into their domains
the others go on demanding reservations for their communities in
different sectors. The North-east is one of the most conflict-hit
regions where insurgent outfits are born every other day on the
pretext of fighting for the ‘rights’ of their own communities.
Besides, there are hundreds of so-called civil society groups and
student bodies raising the same voice, albeit in a different tone.
Of late rallying behind traditional chiefs of Meghalaya are all
nationalistic groups including political parties. The bone of
contention is an order from Meghalaya High Court denying ‘right’ of
traditional chiefs to issue no-objection certificates (NOC). The high
court ruling came in the wake of concerns over abuse of the unwritten
power by the traditional chiefs. The court had said let the chiefs
carry out their social responsibilities and the power of issuing NOC
be rested with the proper authorities. The court even remanded one
such chief in judicial custody recently for contempt of court by
issuing NOC disregarding the high court order. That the Dorbar Shnong,
which is recognised by the autonomous district council formed under
the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, has been enjoying unwritten
powers so far was revealed only after the High Court order that asked
the traditional chiefs not to issue any certificate such as NOC. It
was only after this order by Justice SR Sen that Dorbars realised the
need for a legal authority for them to function.
The world is evolving every day. Way of life had changed in the past,
it is changing now and it will, for ever. None can prevent it. There
is a greater demand for democracy in every aspect of life. The
traditional bodies might be having their inner democracy intact, a
reason for their existence till date, but they are seen as autocratic
by others. A recent memorandum sought 54 separate proposals for a
village administration Bill. There is equal number of Himas
(traditional administrative area) in Khasi-Jaintia Hills region of
less than 10 lakh population. They want the separate Bill drafts since
the traditional laws vary from Hima to Hima! But the ‘laws’ are mostly
unwritten. They want the power, not accountability! As per the
so-far-unwritten laws, a headman’s certificate is needed in many
official works. Everybody, including the Dorbar Shnongs, takes ‘pride’
in the state’s unique system. It is high time the traditional chiefs’
role be defined as per people’s need, not theirs.